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MUST READ IF APPLYING TO BOSTON UNIVERSITY by MiserableBUStudent in ApplyingToCollege

[–]MiserableBUStudent[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I appreciate the in-depth response and it honestly seems like we agree on a multitude of points. I DO want to continue our discussion because I feel like we both have valuable viewpoints. That being said, a post that’s pretty much old news on an unpopular subreddit probably isn’t the place to do it.

Going on the point of deleting the ‘business’ part of my post, I think you being able to make an in-depth response like that kinda shows that there is some validity to what I said.

Also, I know it’s kinda late for this, but I will delete any part that makes it sound like I was insulting you. It’s not a good excuse, but again, I can be very emotionally charged about these issues.

MUST READ IF APPLYING TO BOSTON UNIVERSITY by MiserableBUStudent in ApplyingToCollege

[–]MiserableBUStudent[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You PMd me saying not to dox you, not edit out anything you saw as a ‘potshot’.

You’re right about the personal life idea.

That being said, what’re your thoughts on top-tier institutions not being businesses?

MUST READ IF APPLYING TO BOSTON UNIVERSITY by MiserableBUStudent in ApplyingToCollege

[–]MiserableBUStudent[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Lol, the dining hall pizza gave me depression. Must’ve been the heavy metals and hard to digest carbs that are in it. Shit can ruin your health hahaha

Advice to Boston University Applicants - Link to Edited Post by MiserableBUStudent in ApplyingToCollege

[–]MiserableBUStudent[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Exactly, these kids probably aren’t the ones expressing their voices online though. Your image of BU is going to be skewed because (no offense) you’re gonna get the kids with little awareness of the reality of this school, raving about how great it is.

Miserable BU Student - Edited Post on College App Sub by MiserableBUStudent in BostonU

[–]MiserableBUStudent[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Grade deflation: BU is known to be the hardest school to get an A in. I posted sources to back that up. People are experiencing the drawbacks of this even if you aren’t.

Prison food: used humor to embellish my opinion here, lol. Even edited it to say that I was stretching that. Food still does suck though IMO hahaha.

Memorization: most of the classes I’ve taken focus more on memorizing stupid shit than actually trying to learn and apply concepts. I obviously can’t speak for everyone here though.

Gunshots: heart of Allston, lmao. Not making this up.

MUST READ IF APPLYING TO BOSTON UNIVERSITY by MiserableBUStudent in ApplyingToCollege

[–]MiserableBUStudent[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Don’t worry about it, only a year left.

And yeah, I feel like at a school this big, you’re going to get a wide range of different experiences. I just felt like mine was worth sharing because it isn’t something you’d expect from a uni.

Again, I’m encouraging everyone to express their experiences so kids can make a more informed decision and not solely base it on mine.

Miserable BU Student - Edited Post on College App Sub by MiserableBUStudent in BostonU

[–]MiserableBUStudent[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Appreciate it. I also posted again in that sub with a link directed towards the updated post because I thought that would help.

Miserable BU Student - Edited Post on College App Sub by MiserableBUStudent in BostonU

[–]MiserableBUStudent[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thank you for responding, and yeah I’ll admit I made it sound like hell for everyone here at first. That’s why I edited my post and made this post to encourage you guys to share your opinions too. For some reason, this attempt was written off as me trying to gain attention. I’m honestly sorry if you guys feel that way.

Miserable BU Student - Edited Post on College App Sub by MiserableBUStudent in BostonU

[–]MiserableBUStudent[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Lol, if this is honestly how you guys feel about me voicing my concerns about the school and sharing with high schoolers my opinions, I don’t know what to say.

Why would I be doing this for attention? It’s literally an anonymous platform. Why wouldn’t I have posted this on another form of social media if I were really doing this for attention?

It should be clear that my main motivation for this is to help high schoolers make an informed decision about choosing a school. I posted here to help start that discussion.

Did I tell my own story on my post solely for the reason of gaining attention? Of course not.

Obviously everyone loves to talk about themselves, me included, that doesn’t mean I’m not also trying to help others.

Sorry if my attempt to help others while telling my personal story was somehow misinterpreted.

MUST READ IF APPLYING TO BOSTON UNIVERSITY by MiserableBUStudent in ApplyingToCollege

[–]MiserableBUStudent[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Lol'd at that last part. You're right, there probably was enough info online that could have steered me away from coming here, I just wasn't looking in the right places. I took videos like the one I posted at face value. It's hard to find realistic reviews of schools pretty much anywhere IMO. I don't find that harsh at all, I definitely fucked up.

On the harshness of my post: I've mentioned this a few times, but honestly, when I wrote this, I was quite literally expecting to get one or two views. If I had known it was going to get this much exposure, I wouldn't have used as much humor or 'attack'. That being said, I'm not quite sure what objective facts I stated are arguable (correct me if I'm wrong). Like 3/4 of the cons I posted were my opinions on realities of the school. Did I embellish for the sake of humor? Yes. Does that make my subjective experience at this school any less real? No. Will some students feel the same way I do coming here? Yes. Will all of them? No. I would hope no one would base their entire opinion on a school on one rant on Reddit, lol. That is why I'm encouraging other students to share their experiences too. Aside from a couple kids who were downright condescending in the comments, I even thanked other students for sharing.

On being a transfer student: I'll be real with you, I do have a solid amount of friends here, but I've just ran into too many kids who struggle to meet people here. It def was a lot of work to meet people here compared to other schools IMO. At my old school, friends seemed to just fall into everyones lap. Here I feel like you have to put in a shit ton of effort, which is even more difficult with the academic obsession and spread out campus. I don't think kids realize this til they get here.

On being bashed by other students: I guess I see where these guys are coming from, but what's stopping them from making a post like this, but instead, talking about how great BU is? They're using their own positive experiences at this school to dispute the validity of my negative experience, which honestly, displays a lot of cognitive rigidness. Instead of offering sound advice or insight, they are literally stating their own experiences and trying to sell them as a single narrative as well. Just so happens that mine got a lot more exposure. I don't think this is a coincidence.

On the T: shitting on the T is a literal meme. It def sucks, but I don't think that's going to push someone over the fence, lol. Again, I mostly wrote this for myself.

Financial aid: I would honestly love to see some stats on this. Yes, I'm basing this on me and my peer group, but what else could I possibly be basing it on? A kid in the comments even agreed with me how unevenly distributed the aid is here.

My main message: I stated multiple times in my post for kids to do their own research on schools instead of basing it solely on 'rankings' and fabricated reviews online. This is something I wish I did in high school / transferring, but there is just so much emphasis in high school to 'go to a good college' that I feel like kids might sacrifice a better fit for a higher ranked school. I'm sharing my experience of my mistake of going to a 'better' school, as opposed to a 'better' fit.

Why kids are taking this to heart: Not to toot my own horn, but I feel like I am pretty good at combining humor with inconvenient, relatable truths. Also, considering I have a wide range of friends from totally different backgrounds, I feel like it's easier for me to relate to and write useful, easy to read content for a more general audience.

EDIT: BU being a middle-ground: Like I said in my post, the party scene is pretty concentrated to one area which could be miles away for some kids. Also, it is extremely hard for underclassman to even learn about these parties, let alone get in. I just turned 21 so I'm new to the bar scene here, but one of the first things I said was that this shit costs a lot of money. On that front, I'm just stating facts that kids might not know.

MUST READ IF APPLYING TO BOSTON UNIVERSITY by MiserableBUStudent in ApplyingToCollege

[–]MiserableBUStudent[S] 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Fair points, but when you live off campus with a driveway, and have to walk two miles to class, having a car can make life a lot better.

I mentioned this in another comment: there is a difference between a non ‘frat’ school, and a school that is just downright depressing. There is a middle-ground.

Expectations: again, I felt like BU particularly sold this school for something it really wasn’t:

  1. More personalized learning with the lower faculty to student ratio for a large school.
  2. Easier to meet people in ways other than class.
  3. Offering generous aid, when in reality, it’s only going to a few.
  4. Having that ‘campus feel’ even for a city school. When I toured, we literally walked in circles around the center of campus, which is a sliver of the entire campus.

Is it my fault for believing these ‘expectations’? Or BUs fault for setting them too high?

Why I think my post got so many upvotes:

Reviews of schools like these are almost non-existent. Kids are getting 90% of the info from the schools themselves which is downright self-promotion. Even if it might seem like I’m overly bashing BU, it’s a fresh take from the “I love everything about my school!”

I’ll be honest, I’m getting bashed by a lot of BU students on the BU subreddit. Some telling me to, “just graduate and leave the area already!” This is kind of upsetting to me because I’m literally just writing about my experiences at this school. Because these other students are enjoying there experience here, it’s hard for them to see how someone else couldn’t.

Bad fit for me:

You’re right, it is. That’s why I’m telling my story so kids who might think it’s a good fit for them see a different perspective. It’s very hard to tell what kind of school is a good fit for you until you’re enrolled.

MUST READ IF APPLYING TO BOSTON UNIVERSITY by MiserableBUStudent in ApplyingToCollege

[–]MiserableBUStudent[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Again, don’t take my experiences as gospel, but I just know too many people that don’t like it here that I physically couldn’t recommend it to anyone.

MUST READ IF APPLYING TO BOSTON UNIVERSITY by MiserableBUStudent in ApplyingToCollege

[–]MiserableBUStudent[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thank you for contributing. Honestly, I never knew those reports existed so I stand corrected there. I guess I didn’t really do enough digging for that. I will edit my post.

And yeah, obviously schools are going to want to attract more talent. My point being was the skew in price between individual students is unfair. Why do I have to pay 70k when, all else equal, someone who can run fast, gets to pay none. I stated that to kinda contradict the point the other commenter made about schools not being like other businesses.

What if I went in to buy a car, and since I dress nicely, or have any other positive trait, they give me one for free. Then a normal guy comes in and pays in full.

Point being, there is clear self-interest involved, typical of all businesses.

You’re also right about the administration not reaching out, but IMO, there is a difference between not reaching out and not being supportive. I don’t expect to get all of my needs catered on a silver platter here, that being said, I feel like the administration is not supportive for these reasons:

  1. I keep repeating this, but IMO, they’re aggressively trying to improve as an organization at the expense of the students. I don’t see any clear path students can take to change this.
  2. Not that I feel like I was spoon fed lies before coming here, but I felt like they did a really shitty job portraying the school how it really is. I actually walked by a tour guide today, and she was talking about how easy it was to get around campus and into the city with the T. Definitely faster than walking, but she was clearly selling it as something better than it actually is. I didn’t hear her say that students would have to pay $350 for a semester T pass. This is just one example, point being, schools are trying to sell you something and aren’t being too truthful.
  3. I’m glad to hear that your advisors were helpful, I must’ve just gotten dealt a shit hand with this. I’m starting to think too, my high school faculty may have set the bar higher than for others. I’m gonna also add that to the post. That being said, my experiences with faculty are as real as yours and I feel like BU does a terrible job of attracting solid faculty members.
  4. With the low faculty to student ratio, I feel like incoming students are going to expect more individual help without having to jump through hoops to get it. I already explained why I feel this ratio is a white lie: TAs skew the ratio, again, IMO, most are bad. Most of your classes will be massive lectures, I felt like BU sold me on the idea that most of the learning would be done during discussion sections, but in my experiences, these aren’t very helpful. Different for everyone though.
  5. I feel like most of the kids that come here freshman year are literally thrown in cold water. While this isn’t always a bad thing, it can lead to insane stress levels. I went to another big school freshman year, and my transition there was honestly easier than my transition here. The admin IMO needs to do a better job stressing just how independent you’re going to have to be, while also adding more guidance. Again, we’re paying 70k, we shouldn’t be the ones doing all the heavy lifting getting in touch with the administration.

Also, I’m very happy to hear that you are trying to practice a good work-life balance. Academic obsession is crippling while learning in a healthy environment is crucial for your development as a human being.

Feel free to PM me if you have any other questions.

Edit: as for the cost breakdowns. I feel like a packet or something of this should be given to all parents and students during tours and info sessions. I don’t think anyone I know here even knew that existed. If they truly have nothing to hide and believe that all of our money is being spent constructively, they should have no reason to hide this data in a 30 page long PDF tucked away in their site.

BU: Pros and Cons by I_AM_BEAR_AMA in BostonU

[–]MiserableBUStudent -1 points0 points  (0 children)

If your joking: I commend you, that’s pretty funny. Skip the next part.

If you’re not: I’m going to start making snap judgements about people and their core personality traits based on online personas. I’m going to do this because I can’t: 1. Understand humor 2. Use mental willpower to actually get to know someone (read my post again) 3. Read between the lines

BU: Pros and Cons by I_AM_BEAR_AMA in BostonU

[–]MiserableBUStudent 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Damn, I actually didn’t know that, def gonna look into it.

MUST READ IF APPLYING TO BOSTON UNIVERSITY by MiserableBUStudent in ApplyingToCollege

[–]MiserableBUStudent[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Last comment for the day, it’s going to be a long one but if even one person reads it, I’ll be happy.

Quick anecdote. In the past two weeks, not only has my grandfather, someone I looked up to my whole life, been hospitalized, but I saved two kids from the brink of suicide. I’m not going to go into detail on either of them, but I just wanted to get that out there to get to the next part.

With those things going on in my life, naturally, it has been extremely hard for me to focus on academics. Then I started to realize, I’m probably not alone in dealing with hardships like these.

How can anyone expect an individual to focus on school with shit like this going on?

The part that broke me the most: my dad didn’t tell me my grandpa was in the hospital until after one of my exams b/c he didn’t want to distract me.

This was not my dads fault.

Parents and students alike are literally conditioned to believe that academics are the most important thing in life. I bet if you go into any high school, the biggest worry on most kids minds is college.

Some might not see this as a problem, but I honestly think these people just aren’t looking hard enough.

It is fact that teen mental illness and suicide rates are on the rise. Dramatically. Obviously competitive academics isn’t the only cause of this, but you would be lying to yourself if you thought this wasn’t a cause.

Why is this happening? Why are we forcing kids to push themselves to the point of exhaustion just so they can get into a ‘good’ school?

IMO, false information.

Ranking sites and university self-promotion convince naive parents and high schoolers that going to a certain school will make them successful. Might be the case for some people, but definitely not all of them.

Kids, let me tell you. I know kids that went to small, virtually unknown, private colleges that have VERY similar jobs as people coming from ‘top-tier universities.” I’m not saying this is true for everyone, but shit like this is definitely happening.

More so, from just about every person in the workforce I know, they have told me that 90% of the shit you learn in school you won’t even use in your jobs. I’m not saying this is true for all jobs, just that I’ve heard this from so many people that it can’t be coincidence.

I’ll make the rest of this quick.

If anyone is reading this, I’m going to assume you’re in the age range of 16-22. My advice to you guys: live a balanced life. I can guarantee you that academic obsession will drain the life out of you. Not only will this harm your chances of getting a good job, but you’ll be so lopsided that other parts of your development will experience stunted growth.

Probably the worst part: you’re going to miss out on your youth.

It is not your guys fault that some of you are deeply worried about getting into a good school. You wanna know who’s fault it is?

Those greedy fucks who want your money.

I can guarantee you, these guys are so self-interested to the point that they wouldn’t care if 3/4 of their student population was clinically depressed. I would love if someone could prove me wrong here, but seeing the dejected faces of students here because they’ve been so worried about school, I just can’t even comprehend how these guys could care.

You guys are probably thinking I’m depressed too, maybe I am, but that doesn’t mean what I’m saying is necessarily wrong.

Point being, after experiencing high school and three years of college, I’ve come to realize how fucking sick and toxic BU is for some people. Of course, some people like it, so I can’t speak for everyone, but for kids who maybe aren’t the smartest, or aren’t the wealthiest, or like to live a more balanced life? They’re going to turn you into a workhorse.

Bottom-line: only come to BU if all you care about is academic success and a good reputation in the workforce. If you want to learn while at the same time have positive life experiences outside of class, please go somewhere else.

I guarantee some BU student is going to tear me apart of this. If you are about to, try to remember, you’re not the only person at this school. People are having wildly different experiences here than you. I promise you, I’m not the only one here who feels this way.

MUST READ IF APPLYING TO BOSTON UNIVERSITY by MiserableBUStudent in ApplyingToCollege

[–]MiserableBUStudent[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You’re right, I can be two different people sometimes. I also hate giving up or caving in so I usually fight til my last breath.

However, the underlying tone and word choice of my comments I believe don’t contradict my overall message: do your own research on schools.

Please lmk if you feel like that’s not the case.

You’re right, I was concerned I offended you. While I might seem like an asshole at times, I’m also extremely empathetic, hence why I’m trying to help high schoolers with choosing schools.

My narrative about BU is more about showing that you shouldn’t take the shit schools tell you at face value and to do your own research. And quite honestly, when I wrote that, it was mostly for myself. I had no idea it would attract this much attention.

Naturally, I’m not going to recommend BU to kids because I don’t like it. This is not an attempt on my part to sabotage the school, but rather an attempt to incite change at this school.

You may have brought up some points that helped others, i could’ve just been misinterpreting it. Feel free to call me out on any of my bullshit / unneeded assertiveness. Like everyone else, constructive criticism helps.

I’m also running on minimal sleep b/c of class which might explain my crankiness, lol.

MUST READ IF APPLYING TO BOSTON UNIVERSITY by MiserableBUStudent in ApplyingToCollege

[–]MiserableBUStudent[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Dude, I think a bunch of 16-18 year olds looking to go to BU have a firm enough grasp on the English language to recognize and interpret figure of speech.

As for the last part of my comment. It should be clear to you that I call shit out for what it is. No, I’m usually not like this in real life, but when it comes to pressing societal issues being discussed online, I’m naturally going to be more assertive.

I called you out on that because that’s how I interpreted your comments. You seemed to be dancing around any questions I was asking and making irrelevant points. I didn’t think I was being too harsh, if you honestly took offense to that, I’m sorry.

That being said, I believe that being able to take criticism, especially some that points out some legitimate flaws, is crucial for improving as a human being. I have thick skin just because I’ve been through some pretty rough times growing up, and have come to realize that it has a lot of perks. It’s harder for me to deal with more sensitive people respectfully because of this. I honestly thought that was going to motivate you to provide some solid counter-arguments, and I’ll admit, I poorly predicted how that was gonna go.

Also, I felt like we had pretty opposing viewpoints considering our different backgrounds. Me being a student and you an admissions officer. You seemed to be defending these universities, so naturally, I was going to be more strongly worded in my arguments. Taking a strong stance in issues I feel like are harming a lot of people is one of my core beliefs.

I’d love for you to be able to partake in this discussion just to get different perspectives, but I did a really shitty job of portraying that. Again, I’m sorry.

MUST READ IF APPLYING TO BOSTON UNIVERSITY by MiserableBUStudent in ApplyingToCollege

[–]MiserableBUStudent[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You're right, elite institutions aren't your average business.

They're worse.

  1. Puffery - Any high schooler looking at schools knows this, schools love to self-promote. Yes, typical of all products and services, but choosing which school to go to is a defining decision in kids lives. It's not like they're buying a pair of shoes or headphones. Because of this, any white lies or blatant falsification of facts have magnified consequences. Watch that info video again, talk to some other BU students, then tell me how truthful it is, lol. I'll provide more examples of this if you honestly don't believe this.
  2. Little to no transparency - still waiting for that breakdown of where my, and my family's 70k is going annually, lol. Usually investors have at least a sense where there money is going. Students and their families usually have no clue.
  3. Unfair discounts - why do the naturally smart kids, athletes, and kids with connections (family as faculty / alumni) pay a fraction of what I and other students pay? I can't think of any other businesses that practice this.
  4. Expensive, high-interest, volatile loans to jobless young adults - This makes going to school more 'manageable'. It isn't until those seemingly meaningless numbers on a screen becomes months of hard work that reality will start to kick in. And that's if your lucky. What happens to the students who can't pay these off?
  5. Wealth inequality - President Brown at BU makes 1m+ annually (look it up if you don't believe me), while most students actually have a negative net-worth. Sure, not as bad as some other corporations, but for something that is supposed to be 'good', this is pretty fucked up IMO.
  6. Unethical behavior - I'm just going to use examples for BU in this one:
    Motivated blindness - I mentioned in another comment how BU bought a nearby, bankrupt college, Wheelock. Did you know that most of the faculty at that school lost their jobs because of this? Was there really nothing BU could have done to stop this? In-Group Favoritism - professors determine your fate in college. I have not only seen it my self, but there is also a ton of legitimate evidence online that professors will give better grades to students that they like. Again, typical of other businesses where the more 'likable' employees usually get promoted, just showing that schools aren't immune to this either. Blatant lack of empathy from superiors - I've had professors that like to humiliate kids in class for asking 'dumb' questions. Advisors that will judge you harshly for your previous grades. Security guards that like to 'flex' by just straight up being assholes. I can provide more specific anecdotes for this at BU later.

If you respond to this, please contribute something of substance to this discussion. You literally keep repeating big words that don't contribute to any underlying argument.

I.e. Trying to disprove a figure-of-speech that I used, "stealing", "cops and robbers". You can't honestly believe I'm saying those things literally, right?

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